


Folded Wings

by andantetulo



Category: The Blacklist (TV), The Blacklist (TV) RPF
Genre: Does Red know what's going on, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Kidnapping, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 16:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andantetulo/pseuds/andantetulo
Summary: Elizabeth and Raymond try to be on even ground together. Elizabeth gets kidnapped. Completely unrelated to the plot of the current show, but still not quite AU.





	Folded Wings

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering where the time frame is in the show for this fic, I'm honestly not entirely sure myself. Either way, this was originally supposed to be a study about their relationship and it just took a turn for the worst. Why do these characters always seem to steer the story in their own directions? I tried so hard to make this a fluffy piece but then it just ended up like this Lol. Enjoy guys and let me know what you think.

 

 

A curt couple of knocks sounded at the door, and Liz eyed her watch to check the time. _11:31 pm_. There could only be one person to come to her door at such a late hour, and with a tired sigh, she stepped to the door and allowed him in. 

 

Red was oddly quiet as he entered her apartment, nodding his head as way of greeting before making his way to her coat hanger and setting his fedora on the hook. Liz watched him warily, wondering what this was all about. Before she could speak, he motioned with a finger over his lips to stay silent, and so she did, albeit a bit puzzled and annoyed. He seemed strangely fascinated this evening to look at all the little trinkets Elizabeth had set up in the room, taking hold of several objects and inspecting them. He paced around the cavernous space, carefully picking up objects of mild interest and surveyed them before setting them back down. It was... Unnerving. Raymond had been here at least a billion other times, so what was the big deal? Why did he feel compelled to look through her stuff _now_ and so blatantly, right in front of her? It annoyed her more than it should have, something so trivial, but again it was something she couldn't yet decipher. With an exasperated sigh, she sat down at her kitchen table, hands folding over the wooden top to rest. Elizabeth eyed his figure, noting disdainfully he was faced away from her and staring at something else. After a measured silence, seeing as he was no longer stopping her, she finally spoke up. 

"What are you here for, Red? Another black lister?" 

Raymond quietly eyed the object in his hand before setting it down and turning on his heel to face her. 

"No, actually." 

"Then what-" 

"This visit concerns your safety, Elizabeth. I'm afraid someone is spying on you." He cut off her likely heated response. 

Liz laughed coldly. 

"When are your visits _not_ about some safety issue?" 

His lip curled halfheartedly into a frown, a flash of something appearing in his gaze before he turned back around and took up another object in hand. 

"I have good intel that this _someone_ is expected to drop by for a visit later this evening, Lizzie. I wanted to know if you'd do me the favor of just this once allowing me to protect you." 

Elizabeth's eyes widened fractionally, before shaking her head. 

"You know, this could have been easily discussed over the phone-" 

"It seems our calls have been tapped, so I had no choice but to come myself. After checking your apartment for any possible bugs, I found it best to discuss it with you now. If it was unnecessary, trust me Elizabeth, I wouldn't be here." His words settled like a cold weight in her stomach, making her throat clench and tighten. How she hated it when the tides changed between them. _She_ was the one supposed to- no, ALLOWED to be angry at him, the notorious criminal, the one who upended her life, and not the other way around. For what had she done to his? She may never know, but a raging fire welled up inside her like no other, somehow giving her relief to feel less empty for once. 

"Well it _is_ unnecessary, because I don't want your protection. Leave me alone. And tell them I don't associate with notorious criminals _anymore_." Venom spilled through Liz's every pore, her eyes fixed with an icy glare at Red's back. His body went completely rigid for a moment, before he carefully set down the statue of a Greek Warrior back onto the white shelf of a bookcase. Raymond sighed. 

"As much as I'd..." He trailed off, clicking the back of his teeth with his tongue in a regretful manner. 

"I'm not asking, Lizzie. I'm only warning you now. You may do as you wish." He began briskly walking to the door to make his exit, not even giving her a second glance, when Elizabeth called his attention. 

"..Raymond?" She asked all too softly, and it made him take pause at his full name, carefully eyeing her over his shoulder. 

"Yes?" He asked guardedly, voice barely above a whisper. Elizabeth didn't know what she was doing, really, but she didn't want to end the night on a bad note, as much as it pained her to admit even to just herself, and she stood up from her chair, making a few good steps toward him before stopping short. Red continued to eye her warily, but he didn't step away, merely turned himself all the way to face her. 

"Yes..." Elizabeth started, pausing just before her apology because it felt so lodged in her throat. 

"Yes... To what, Lizzie?" His reluctance felt like a lead weight, and right then she wanted to give up the endeavor, this ridiculous endeavor to make it okay again. But she felt so empty... There suddenly wasn't anything more important to her.

"Yes, I'll accept your protection..." Elizabeth had wanted to say more, something like 'only if you share a drink with me', or similarly 'only if you stay', but her ego clamped her mouth shut. God, how she wished it could be easy, to talk freely to him like it once was, in the beginning. Red nodded, before turning back to the door and picking up his fedora, carefully setting it back on his head.

"Well then... My security detail is just outside. If you need anything at all, _anything_ , Elizabeth," He said very seriously, "You let them know. A manner of knocks would suffice." Dusting himself of nonexistent lint, he made for the door, stopping just short of the knob when he heard her quiet voice call to him again. 

"And where will you be, Raymond?" Elizabeth whispered, impossibly small all of the sudden, and he knew if he turned around now he'd stay. A silence drew out long and unsettling. Liz shifted her weight. 

"Good night, Lizzie." He didn't turn to look at her as he left, didn't say anymore as he fled down the hall. 'Coward' he thought to himself bitterly. He couldn't face her disappointment and weakness. If he had, it'd surely break him. Quietly, Liz closed the door to her apartment, that emptiness returning ten fold despite the lighter mood. It didn't make her feel better at all. God, she's an idiot. Numbly, she shuffled to her bedroom, settling down for bed, thoughtlessly placing her service pistol underneath the pillow for the night to come. ' _Who was after her this time?_ ' She thought detachedly before falling into a fitful slumber. 

\----------

No more than a few hours later did Lizzie wake to the eerily still darkness of her bedroom. Laying like a lump on a log and trying to survey the room was by no means an easy task, but she managed. Slowly and deliberately, her eyes scanned around the room, sharpening when a shadow crept from behind the drapes. Her reflexes came too slow to stop the cloaked individual, who very quickly threw an arm around her throat and mouth, using the cloth to smother her struggles. Her vision dimmed to nothingness, and it was apparent with the silence of her apartment that no one was coming to rescue her this time around. 

\----------

Raymond agitatedly paced the length the Post Office's floor, coming to terms with his failure to protect Elizabeth unsuccessfully.

"Elizabeth has gone missing," He said unceremoniously, gathering the attention of the whole task force, worry etched into each of their faces. 

"How is that possible? I thought you had your watch dogs guarding her, what the hell happened?!" 

"What the hell _happened_ , Donald, is that I underestimated the enemy. Not something I can usually claim, however, it will not happen again." Red spoke with such deadly conviction, everyone was instantly on edge. 

"Now... Aram, I had my associates send you the tape from last night, up until the point of her disappearance. Did you catch anything?" 

"Uh- yes, actually, I did, Mr. Reddington... I checked the feeds from several different nearby street cameras, and compared them to the recordings you gave me, and I found something interesting... An ambulance, a couple streets over, heading South West at approximately 1:55 in the morning." Aram's fingers flew over the key board, quickly pulling up several images of said vehicle, all with different time stamps and snapshots of the same thing. Raymond stared at the images intently. 

"That could be any ambulance in the area, Aram... Are you sure it isn't just a coincidence?" Samar asked, her slender brow raising at the tech. 

"See, that's what I thought too, at first..." He trailed off before pulling up another few images showing an array of numbers and letters. 

"But I kept getting this feeling that something wasn't right, so I checked the manifests at local hospitals, seeing if they received a call or an emergency somewhere near Liz's house..." His mouse scrolled to a blurry close up of the plates of the ambulance, and then to a white sheet of numbers and letters.

"The plates to this ambulance don't exist- they're a fake." It took everything within Reddington to remain calm and collected. The series of numbers and letters from the screen signaled like a loud siren in the back of his mind, because he _recognized_ them. 

"They're not a fake, actually," Raymond's eye twitched, an undercurrent of worried anger hidden in his voice.  The people of the post office looked at Raymond, then at each other and back, in uneasy silence. 

"That ambulance is from another state." Aram's eyes widened, and with another flurry of furious typing he pulled up a map on the big screen, showing the ambulance's jurisdiction. 

"You're right, Mr. Reddington- the ambulance is from Maine...."

"But how the hell did it get all the way down to D.C.?" The cherry blonde agent asked, puzzled. 

"And why are they after Liz?" Samar turned to the criminal, eyes sharp as she raised another eyebrow, intent on hearing his explanation. To that, Red went silent. 

"Look, it doesn't matter  _why_ they're after Liz- we gotta find her, and fast. Aram, do you know where the ambulance went after picking her up?" Ressler set a reassuring hand on the techie's shoulder. Aram's nod was stilted. 

"Well, that's the thing- After getting off the highway, it just kinda... Vanished. I tried getting feeds from the area it was last seen in, but.. nothing came up...." He looked up at Ressler defeatedly, his round, misty eyes seemingly ready to drop tears any moment.

"Don't worry..." Ressler spoke, patting Aram on the back before gathering his coat and walking briskly to the elevator. 

"We'll find her. Just keep looking." Aram nodded his head, wiping the wetness quickly from his eyes with his hand.  

"Of course." 

Red was alarmingly absent from the whole of the conversation, and his gaze was very sternly fixed on the screen, studying the plate number in front of him. Samar eyed Raymond suspiciously as she jogged to Ressler's side, before the elevator closed and took off. 

"It's time to meet an old friend," Raymond said to himself cryptically, just before tipping his hat to Aram and making his exit, Dembe in tow.

\-------- 


End file.
